This invention relates to systems that monitor physiological characteristics of ambulatory patients.
In “Holter monitoring,” a patient module acquires and records ECG data but does not analyze the data. After recording is complete, data is transferred from the patient module to a base station that analyzes the data. The base station identifies clinically notable findings for review by clinical specialists. In “event monitoring” data selection is performed in the patient module, either as the result of ECG analysis or due to a patient-initiated trigger. Selected ECG results are transmitted or downloaded to a system at a central facility.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,177 B2 by Eggers et al. entitled “CONTROL OF DATA TRANSMISSION BETWEEN A REMOTE MONITORING UNIT AND A CENTRAL UNIT” describes bidirectional communications between a remote monitoring unit and a central unit. The remote monitoring unit obtains a monitored data set from the patient, analyzes the monitored data set to obtain a derived data set and determines from the derived data set that communication with the central unit is required. The central unit analyzes the initially transmitted data set and instructs the remote monitoring unit to transmit an additional data set related to the monitored data set and a time when to transmit the additional transmitted data set.